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You rebel you.... You always struck me as being a yes Mum, no Mum, three bags full kinda bloke....

I spent some time in Radio in the 50s and 60s and then became a teacher in UK but in the 80s and later went to Lille, Waregem and Gelsenkirchen on occasional weeks/month as a cover English teacher. Still go sometimes to meet up with old friends and have organised the local exchange group for years until we all got too old, but my first 1949 visit to Castrop got me with young mates who were all young 'Knappen' it just went from there really! Oh - and I work on the principal that you're never too old for anything!!!

I think he was trying to push the Cream Pie angle which seemed to go right over your head...

They’re talking absolute bollocks. The head can be used to score with, so imagine leaning into a run and a goal being scored 5 seconds later with your feet. It’s ludicrous.

One thing missing! I have travelled far and wide, but never got to your part of the world so perhaps not as lucky as some! Perhaps......

When he came from Switzerland to Gelsenkirchen I was occasionally still going to Bergefeld for a few weeks each year and with former students (Manu, Benny and Joel - Mesut had already gone to Bremen, but his dad, Mustafa, was always around) we used to get together after training. Magrat's operation ruined the side and it broke up and when Ivan went off to Seville we kept in touch and sometimes called in when we were in other parts of Southern Spain on holiday - particularly to see how Dinain - his Bar which future wife Raquel looked after - was doing. Great place for Tapas! When little Althea was born in 2013 he sent me a nice pic of the three of them and I still carry it in my wallet to this day - great guy - super family man (now with two little girls) and needless to say - a superb footy man. Sometimes the strangest things happen and you get to meet young guys who remain friends for a long time!

We’ve seen France scrap their League Cup, the Spanish have scrapped two legged Copa Del Rey games, they’ve expanded their Super Cup to four teams, bastardised it and flogged it to the biggest bidder (Saudi Arabia) and the Italians have had their Supercoppa held in the US, China, Qatar and even bloody Libya. There’s even been the slow signs of change in English Football with replays scrapped after Round Five and the League Cup going straight to penalties after normal time. There’s been signs of domestic football being influenced by certain clubs and certain influences whom also hold a standing within UEFA for years. We’ve even seen change Internationally with the extended Euros competition in France four years ago, that was shit, the introduction of the Nations League (though International Football certainly needed something, we’ll see how this crosses over with the Euros) and plans for extended World Cup’s. There’s been changes happening slowly in Football at UEFA level at club level and Internationally. Some are good for the game as a whole and others are clearly bad and morally wrong. I think this is just another step towards a European competition(s) taking precedence in Football with domestic football playing second fiddle, a bit like it does in Cricket with the International game ruling the roost and domestic cricket being a bit of an after thought.

@Toinho is this why you go back to Japan all the time

If you like Star Wars you'll get the reference. It's the fact that Storm Troopers can never hit anything and are always missing.

I will cut you both.

Thought De Gea would have been a decent shout. Been at the club long enough. Perhaps the leadership qualities that are required of a captain (understated these days?) aren't present in De Gea. Maybe Mata as well. The fact it's been given to Maguire already goes to show that Utd have lacked/been lacking a proper leader for some time. I know there's the unhappiness at the board to explain some things about Utd right now but it could explain why some things on the pitch haven't been going great either - there's no character like you had with the likes of Keane, Vidic, Ferdinand, Rooney etc. Instead you have tits like Jones, Bailly and Fred to get you through